Presence, Being, and Charisma

June 16th, 2006 Fred McVittie

It will be claimed that the concept of charisma is identified in one or more of four processes;

• Celebrity recognisability - in which charisma is a function of the degree to which the possessor has gained public and/or media attention.
• Supernatural power - in which the possessor is assumed to have some gift, energy, or magic that confers charisma upon them.
• Actual authority - where the possessor of charisma also has access to material resources, knowledge, force, etc that is desirable.
• Beauty/attractiveness - in which the possessor of charisma also possesses other, less mysterious, attractions.

The notion of presence within performance (and in non-theatrical contexts) will be related to these various processes of charisma production. It will be proposed that there are techniques to produce presence/charisma in performance in which the embodied signs of these processes are manifested.

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Out of Body: In Body. Being Present

June 24th, 2006 Fred McVittie

Presence, in the sense of theatrical attractiveness or charisma, is a phenomena which is the exact opposite of an OOBE or ‘out of body experience’ (see Metzinger). In the OOBE the sense of self is decoupled from the somatosensory body and instead relies solely on internal maps and models for orientation in space etc. In the condition of enhanced being that we refer to as theatrical presence the sense of self is very firmly lodged within the somatosensory body, (or rather, there is a near-total match between internal model and somatosensory body).

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The Body as a Vehicle of Telepresence

June 25th, 2006 Fred McVittie

It has been demonstrated that the sense of being present within a virtually simulated environment, a phenomena usually referred to as telepresence, correlates with the ability to effectively carry out a task in that environment. That is, the more one feels present the better one performs.(1) Given this, it may be useful to consider the unaugmented human body not as integrated with psyche but rather as a vehicle for the psyche to occupy. In this understanding, the psyche becomes ‘telepresent’ through its immersion in the environment and sensorium of the body. A performer working with this conception of the relationship between mind and body should be able to better understand the need for presence, as well as being able to interpret exercises and information for the enhancement of that presence (a term which is often shrouded in mysticism) in terms of an immersive somatosensory experience. The radical Cartesian dualism that this implies is distinctly unfashionable (although it is an axiom of ‘human science’ and apparently a ‘human universal’) but may prove useful in explaining and potentially enhancing the sense of presence which, in theatrical performance contexts, correlates with the carrying out of tasks which increase charisma and the ability to attract attention.

1. Welch, Robert B. - How Can We Determine if the Sense of Presence Affects Task Performance? Presence, October 1999, Vol. 8, No. 5, Pages 574-577

Posted in Charisma, Dualism, Exercises, Performance, Presence, Telepresence, Training, Welch, Robert B. | No Comments »

Unconscious Presence

July 9th, 2006 Fred McVittie

Theatrical presence or charisma is not primarily an attribute we can comprehend through conscious measurement or logical processes of deduction. We usually get a sense of the charisma possessed by a performer on a non-cosnscious level, although we may be able to bring that sense to conscious awareness. This suggests that techniques for the enhancement of presence and the development of charisma would involve the learning of strategies for self-presentation which similarly operate and communicate on a non-conscious level.

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What is ‘Presence’?

November 12th, 2006 Fred McVittie

‘Presence’ is an observable condition in which the person displaying this quality is distinguished from others who do not by their ability to attract attention (without apparently doing anything unusual). This quality is often characterised as a ‘power’ (charisma) which is ineffable and makes a direct appeal to intuition rather than to rational analysis.

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Presence, Performance, and the Management of Nuance

November 14th, 2006 Fred McVittie

One understanding of the term ‘Performance’ is as a moment within all creative processes corresponding to that of ‘illumination’ in Wallas’ model. This understanding has been applied to the process of scientific enquiry (Crease) in which the actual carrying out of an experiment is the ‘performance’. (It is revealing to note that Crease further describes a highly effective scientific experiment as ‘artistic’). If we can allow the term ‘performance’ to adopt this meaning, then it might be useful to consider what another terms/concepts used within the context of theatrical performance might come to mean when given this wider application. One term which lends itself to this consideration might be presence; the theatrical quality of being able to attract attention, also referred to as charisma.

It has been hypothesised elsewhere that presence is a function of a set of behavioural nuances which, taken together, convey a certain impression, even if the exact method of this conveyance is not recognised. We do not routinely note why a certain person possesses charisma, we recognise it non-consciously and feel ourselves affected by it. If we are to take this concept of the mechanisms of presence and apply it more broadly we would be led to conclude that the correlate of presence in non-theatrical creative processes would involve a similar management of subtle nuances. In a scientific process for example, particularly in the ‘performance’ moment of the scientific experiment, presence would consist of an attention to detail that might be thought of as requiring an artistic sensibility.

Posted in Attention, Charisma, Crease, Robert, Performance, Presence, Wallas, Graham | No Comments »

The Evolution of Attraction

November 15th, 2006 Fred McVittie

The various terms which cluster under the general heading of ‘attractiveness’, (charm, charisma, presence, etc.) and the related terms which are assumed to be causally linked to this attractiveness (power, beauty, leadership, authority, pathos, etc), refer to states of being in which the actions (and presumably inner states) of one entity have an attractive effect upon another. It is likely that these various actions evolved, at least partly, because of this attractive effect they produce and the concommitant adaptive value of such attractiveness. It would make sense for the gestures of pathos to be ‘attractive’ as they would then be likely to stimulate the person attracted to provide help. It would also make sense for the gestures of beauty to be ‘attractive’ as this would lead directly to mating success. It would make sense for the gestures of leadership to be attractive as this would give status gains to the leader (and, presumably, a direction to those attracted by such leaders.)

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Charisma as an Adaptive Behaviour

January 5th, 2007 Fred McVittie

We give attention to those events and entities which have most relevance to us. This is an evolutionary adaptation springing from the survival advantage conferred on those genes/organisms which are particular sensitive to these events, allowing the organism to respond to the event with behaviour which is appropriate. Advantageous behaviour may be positive, in which the organism recognises an opportunity for enhanced reproductive success or personal survival, or it may be negative, in which a threat or hazard is proactively recognised and avoided. These adaptive mechanisms, made complex and covert through social and biological history, underpin the mechanisms of attention management which we recognise today as ‘presence’, ‘beauty’, ‘charisma’, ‘celebrity’ etc.

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